Star Trek Online: Here We Go Again!

[Surlyboi]

I did laugh when I ran into the USS Evil Lincoln though.

My favorite so far is the USS Priceline Negotiator.

Obama Sucks, flying the Dead Teddy K was one I saw today. Talk about no taste at all.

[caladein]

Please tell me that was a Federation ship.

[Jayce]

makes you wonder then -- WTF put in levels then?  Just a stalling (business retention) tactic.  Why not make everyone the same power and allow them to customize minor stuff and rev the whole game every few weeks.  Which most MMO's do anyways. 

Pretty much what I was getting at in my earlier post.  The only purpose I see for levels anymore are as an initiation to the game mechanics and a way to meet people.  I think a Tortage-like experience to get to cap would be sufficient for any MMO.  Follow that up with a lengthy faction/gear/achievement grind and you win. 

I wouldn't be so quick, you guys. I know two people off the top of my head - and I'm one sometimes too - who spend next to no time at max level. Within two weeks and often within one of reaching the level cap, they wander off to playing a low level alt and never look back.

I suspect there are a lot of those types of folks. It sounds like Cryptic has mostly already lost them by doing a single-server, 3 character slot model.  They'd have to delete their monuments to wasted time in order to play the way they want to, and that probably ain't gonna happen.

[Setanta]

Or they will use the "extra character slots" micro-transactions ploy. I bought every slot I could for Guild Wars because I didn't want to delete characters.

[Sheepherder]

There are going to be a few outliers who burn through content at a rate 10x or more that of any normal person. If you give that person enough content to keep them occupied then 90% of your content is wasted on 90% of the players - not a great way to spend money.

Then the slow players see the catass complain about no content, ask why the fuck they're grinding to cap if there is nothing at cap, read the developer promise about a miracle patch any day now, ask who the fuck in their right mind would believe a promise of a miracle patch after that kind of shit has failed to materialize in several games...

[Surlyboi]

Please tell me that was a Federation ship.

Of course it was. Nevermind that the federation is just this huge example of socialism and all the things a douchenozzle that would name a ship Dead Teddy K normally rails against.

[caladein]

[Soln]

how is the PvP?  any uber wanks on the Klingon side curbstomping the socialists yet?

[Kageru]

I wouldn't be so quick, you guys. I know two people off the top of my head - and I'm one sometimes too - who spend next to no time at max level. Within two weeks and often within one of reaching the level cap, they wander off to playing a low level alt and never look back.

I suspect there are a lot of those types of folks. It sounds like Cryptic has mostly already lost them by doing a single-server, 3 character slot model.  They'd have to delete their monuments to wasted time in order to play the way they want to, and that probably ain't gonna happen.

Encouraging people to invest seriously in alts also needs multiple paths the content and multiple gameplay styles depending on which build or class you are playing. With cryptic probably having wafer thin content again and relatively little variation in gameplay based on talents / ship / bridge officers they don't seem to really support that approach.

[Venkman]

Most of these games don't. You need to get into SWG or Eve or something with actual diversity before alts give a completely different game. For diku-inspired MMOs like STO (and WoW), you're really just interacting with the exact same content a slightly different way. The real class differences become most pronounced in Raids when your role does actually mean you're playing a very different game

There is some diversity in the different STO archetypes, but it's much closer to "I kill with lightning instead of fire" variety plus some occasional specialized quests than it is "I'm a crafter|killer|treasure hunter|hauler|shopkeep" variety.

[Modern Angel]

how is the PvP?  any uber wanks on the Klingon side curbstomping the socialists yet?

PvP is battleground based but it's really fun. Even the ground combat, which plays sort of like a slowed down old school death match. Don't expect anything fancy or particularly innovative but it is fun. Well incentivized in terms of money and xp, too.

[Mavor]

 I found the pvp ground combat to be uninspired and boring to be honest... Ship combat was alright, though I would rather play SFC3 if given the choice.

[ghost]

I'm feeling rather guilty right now.  I know better than this........   Downloading on Steam.

[Nebu]

I'm feeling rather guilty right now.  I know better than this........   Downloading on Steam.

No reason to feel guilty.  If the game gives you a couple of weeks of mindless fun, then you got your money's worth. 

I'm probably going to give it a shot when some of the kinks have been ironed out.

[Zetor]

I think the next big MMO should start out with the players starting at "end game".  Then you'll just be getting levels and such after you've already maxed your character but from the beginning.  It will be magical.  

I have been taking my sweet time with LOTRO, some because I don't have a choice and some because I want to try to enjoy it.  The only time I ever don't like the slowish pace is when things get grindy (which deeds are definitely grindy).  

Sorry for the semi-hijack, but that's exactly how Guild Wars works. You hit level 20 after doing the first few tutorial missions and the rest of the missions / content are tuned for max level, unless you are playing the original campaign (which is 1/3 levelling 2/3 level-20 play). At that point, you can get outfitted in the best gear stat-wise that you can get in the game right away, and 'progression' after that point just means new kinds of skills (most of which allow for more flexible play, but don't heal/damage/buff debuff for more; you can only equip 8 skills at one time, remember) and armor (no stat differences, just looks cooler). Well ok, you can get 'rare' weapons, but the stat difference between those and 'normal' weapons is minimal. You can still 'ding' by filling your xp bar, but it only gives you a buff when you do (and allows you to learn one more skill, but you can spend money to get the same effect).

This is also why I have high hopes for GW 2...

[Stormwaltz]

In the last couple of days, I've seen recruitment spam for the "Blue Suns Mercenaries" and saw the "USS NORMANDY 2" (yes, all caps) fly by under the command of Lieutenant "Tali."

It's an odd feeling to have worked on a cultural reference.

[Surlyboi]

Right there with ya, Storm.

[Modern Angel]

If the game gives you a couple of weeks of mindless fun, then you got your money's worth. 

We have established that this is fundamentally untrue. It is an MMO and you need at least a year, maybe two, before you can judge things like fun.

[ghost]

This is also why I have high hopes for GW 2...

If you can't jump I'm not playing.

[tmp]

In the last couple of days, I've seen recruitment spam for the "Blue Suns Mercenaries" and saw the "USS NORMANDY 2" (yes, all caps) fly by under the command of Lieutenant "Tali."

It's an odd feeling to have worked on a cultural reference.

During the open beta it was pretty normal to run into 2-3 Shepards a day.

Heck, i'll fess up i'd named my escort Le Havre only because Normandy would have been too blatant

[Riggswolfe]

In the last couple of days, I've seen recruitment spam for the "Blue Suns Mercenaries" and saw the "USS NORMANDY 2" (yes, all caps) fly by under the command of Lieutenant "Tali."

It's an odd feeling to have worked on a cultural reference.

During the open beta it was pretty normal to run into 2-3 Shepards a day.

Heck, i'll fess up i'd named my escort Le Havre only because Normandy would have been too blatant

I had a Normandy in beta and I will have in live if I make it far enough and if I don't feel like I'm dirtying up the name.

[Lum]

Starfleet Command will never run around, nor desert you.

[UnSub]

A say-nothing review from The Independent, but it gets bonus points for using Perpetual's sole released screenshot as the picture.

[Gutboy Barrelhouse]

That was a review? Really?


"it’s almost impossible to judge how it will play out in the long term."


It would help if she tried the game.

[Kageh]

It even got 3/5 stars!

[pxib]

gamedreaming wrote:
Saturday, 6 February 2010 at 04:01 am (UTC)
WoW gold really plays such an important role in World of Warcraft. I will need a lot of wow gold in the game.so every time i will come to wow-gold-team.com, which is my favorite website.:)

Quality.

[Stormwaltz]

I love how the spammers (and I always have to mute 4-6 on login) always offer to sell "gold."

It's like they can't even be bothered to update their cut & paste text.

[Riggswolfe]

I love how the spammers (and I always have to mute 4-6 on login) always offer to sell "gold."

It's like they can't even be bothered to update their cut & paste text.

Yeah, there are a ton of them. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I find a vague sense of amusement in their powerleveling offers though. It should be rewritten:

"Pay us $50 and we'll get you to max level where you have nothing to do while you paid us to skip all the content that actually exists. Sucker!"

[tmp]

Wouldn't be surprised if the gold spam was getting through the filters precisely because it's not the game currency

[Lum]

I love how the spammers (and I always have to mute 4-6 on login) always offer to sell "gold."

It's like they can't even be bothered to update their cut & paste text.

Well, the domain they're spamming has "gold" in the title.

Having to wrestle with slapping them down in Aion gives me a bit of respect for anyone else trying to do so. Hint: they're more than a little persistent!

[Shatter]

The gold farmers in Aion have resorted to sending tells with stuff like "Hello handsome man or woman" and the best part is they always put in "My name is Sally" or some shit lol

[Rendakor]

Some of the farmers in WoW will shoot you a tell with something simple, like, "Hey bro" then hit you with the real spam if you reply.

[Slyfeind]

I had an old friend in WoW take a break, then the day after she left I got "heya" from a first-level. I thought maybe that was her on a friend's account, but considered it was a gold spammer. I didn't reply.

I shall never know if it was her or not. Gold spammers break friendships!!!

[UnSub]

Atari says that "By 1m accounts, we meant 1m Cryptic forum accounts - STO and ChampO combined."

Sounds like someone in Atari PR went fishing for something to release and got some important details wrong. That said, from Cryptic's point of view, 1m Cryptic accounts isn't bad at all given how long they've been operating separately from NCsoft.

[Malakili]

Atari says that "By 1m accounts, we meant 1m Cryptic forum accounts - STO and ChampO combined."

Sounds like someone in Atari PR went fishing for something to release and got some important details wrong. That said, from Cryptic's point of view, 1m Cryptic accounts isn't bad at all given how long they've been operating separately from NCsoft.

I had a feeling that was going to be the case.